Home Movie Day 2013 (event)

Join the University of Arizona Special Collections and Department of English to mark Tucson’s participation in the international event “Home Movie Day,” on Saturday, October 26, 2013 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon at Special Collections, 1510 E. University Blvd.

Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur filmmaking held annually at dozens of local venues worldwide, providing the opportunity for individuals and families to discover how best to care for their films and get a rare chance to view examples of home movies.

The Tucson community is invited to bring original 8mm, S8mm and 16mm films for consideration, inspection by experts, and screening on Home Movie Day alongside a community audience. Home movies filmed in Southern Arizona and the US/Mexico Borderlands are particularly welcome.

Tucson’s Home Movie Day will also feature a short film by Ken Wolfgang, “Who Needs You,” which tells the story of local children determined to build a clubhouse in downtown Tucson.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive at 10:00 a.m. with their home movie reels. Reel submissions will be accepted at the door for inspection. Consultations about how best to preserve home movies and their role in local history will be shared, along with treats and prizes.

Home movies provide invaluable records of our families and our communities: they document vanished storefronts, questionable fashions, adorable pets, long-departed loved ones, and neighborhoods in transition. Many people still possess these old reels or tapes, passed down from generation to generation, but lack the projection equipment to view them properly and safely. That's where Home Movie Day comes in: the public brings the films, and volunteers inspect them, project them, and offer tips on storage, preservation, and video transfer— free of charge at the Tucson event.

Film archivists established the event to highlight the cultural significance of home movies and the need to properly preserve them as artifacts of culture. Home Movie Day has grown each year from its initial slate of two dozen locations across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Japan in 2003 to more than 90 venues in 17 countries in 2012, and more sites are being added weekly for the 2013 events.